Talking about Olympic events while ramping up for the next major competition in Tokyo!

Sunday, April 29, 2018

Olympic Blurb: Stars On Ice and Weekly Wrap-Up

Vlogging is hard work!

(We double the g, correct? It's a single-syllable, short-vowel, v-c ending, so we double the g?)

I decided to put a vlog together that covered my experience going to Stars On Ice, a Scott Hamilton production featuring Olympians from the past two Winter Games.

In all honesty, it's because I wanted to type fewer words. I had a really busy weekend and am putting this up late already because of everything that happened. However, I can delete words when I realize that I typed something wrong. It's much harder to edit all the "ums" and "sos" out and remember all the correct names off the top of the hat!

For example, you'll notice that I mention Charlie Davis and Meryl White in the vlog. Newsflash: there are no such people in ice dancing. It's Charlie White and Meryl Davis.

I also kept forgetting that the couples featured in Stars On Ice were ice dancing couples - there were no pairs couples there!

So please forgive me for those flubs, but enjoy my review (and my dad's review!) of Stars On Ice!

Tokyo 2020 Prep

Does eating ramen count? Because I ate ramen at a restaurant called Ramen-san in Chicago, and it was delicious! I ate tonkotsu ramen, which is a pork-based broth, and it had the best pork belly I have ever tasted ever. Melt-in-your-mouth goodness!

Mini Blurbs

This week's BlurbWatch:

baseball

track and field

curling

figure skating (live!)

I have fallen into an Opening Ceremony black hole, and this week I watched the London 2012 ceremony - one of my favorites of all time. Is it because I enjoy British culture and liked how it featured a lot of stellar British actors and musicians? Probably.

I was so into Opening Ceremonies that I looked on YouTube and found the Montreal 1976 Opening Ceremony! Spoiler alert: Opening Ceremonies didn't get interesting until the 1990s.

In the vlog above I mentioned that Charlie WHITE and Meryl DAVIS' scarf routine ended badly because of technical difficulties - not the skaters. Good news: it was on the NBCSN broadcast of Stars On Ice and you can watch it below! (I know my Dad was glad to see it!)

When you hear me talk about the OBS, you might be confused what the acronym stands for. I found the official name: it's the Olympic Broadcasting Services. If the cameras aren't NBC and you're watching the Olympics, then it's the OBS cameras. (They air more Olympic coverage than you think!)

This weekend was relay weekend, with both the Drake and Penn Relays going on. I love relays! Competing as an individual isn't difficult compared to trying to run a top speed while handing off a baton to another person also running at top speed. It's also a lot like speedskating: never trust the finish line results, because someone probably committed a lane violation somewhere.

The Jamaican women won the 4x100 at the Penn Relays, but the American men got first and second - rather handily, actually! Apparently those young Team USA sprinters have been practicing their handoffs. (And Justin Gatlin - he's not young.)

These relays have medleys, too - mixing up different distances in one race! For example, there was a race that had two 100m legs, a 200m leg, and a 400m leg! (Where is medley relays in the Olympics? C'mon, man!)

The Penn Relays are at the University of Pennsylvania, but there was a giant contingent of Jamaican fans there! It was really impressive.

Meanwhile in the middle of the country, the Drake Relays were also taking place, and this didn't just feature track events. I just made a note in my calendar to try to make it over to Des Moines next April! It's sponsored by HyVee, a midwest grocery store. They actually showed a HyVee commercial on NBSCN! I've never seen a HyVee commercial before!

The mile competition featured a lot of athletes, but the one the commentators kept talking about was Mikey Brannigan, a paralympian who has autism. He didn't finish well, but it was great to hear a paralympian get some attention. (BTW he won gold in Rio in the mile.)

Not only was Brannigan there, they had a paralympic 200m sprint event which featured athletes with varying disabilities, from David Brown, who is completely blind, to Regas Woods, whose legs were amputated when he was two! (What variety! I really want to go to the Drake Relays now!)

High jumper Inika McPherson's warm up outfit is a black Power Ranger outfit.

Unlike the London Marathon, where athletes were vying to break the marathon records but failed, Jenny Simpson came to the Drake Relays and broke the American record for the 2-mile race! She was on her own for much of the race, which is the worst way to run a race!

World Mixed Curling championships were this weekend, and Team USA finished 6-1 in pool play but were eliminated in the quarter finals. What a bummer!

Next week I'm given a birthday present of the opening weekend of the IAAF Diamond League! I'm very excited to watch some awesome international competition!

My name is Claire Nat! You can follow me on Twitter @CeePipes for lots of Olympic comments, or follow me on Facebook at facebook.com/blurbmusings. Check out my blog for other articles!